Lemon and Blueberry Loaf Cake
It’s been a long and busy summer and to be totally honest, I haven’t been in the kitchen much at all. Works been manic, the temperature’s been to hot to stay indoors, and I’ve finally - after 32 years of trying - started doing a bit of exercise so I’ve had more on my plate than usual. That said, as summer starts to draw to a close (still hoping for an Indian summer over here!) but it’s technically the beginning of Autumn tomorrow so I’m getting back into cooking.
At this time of year there’s an abundance of blueberries in the supermarket (I picked up a 550g punnet in M&S for just £3) and when I saw them I knew exactly what I wanted to make - Lemon and blueberry cake! Anything with lemon is a winner for me and you can tailor the amount of juice you add to suit you tastes, I’d probably suggest just 30ml if you want a more subtle lemon flavour. I had some left over vanilla buttercream icing in the fridge but I think this cake would be just as lovely without any icing or perhaps served with a dollop of blueberry compote.
This is a really easy recipe that has a texture similar a Madeira cake but a bit lighter - YUM! It only takes about 10 minutes to get it all mixed up and into the oven but annoyingly it takes just over an hour to bake and about the same to cool so some patience is needed for sure.
Firstly pre-heat your oven to 160fan/180 and grease and line a loaf tin with some baking paper to make removing it from the tin nice and easy. I don’t fully trust non stick pans still.
In a medium bowl sift in the flour, salt and baking powder and give it a nice good mix, then with a stand mixer if you have one or using a hand whisk and a nice large bowl, whisk together the soft butter and sugar until you have a nice light mixture that’s pale in colour and smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, eggs, lemon juice and lemon rind and whisk on a medium speed until it’s all combined. Don’t worry if splits, it' will all become good in the end.
Then on a low speed, still using the whisk attachment , because - why not? we don’t need more washing up - add in the flour and milk alternating a few tablespoons of four with a slug of the milk finishing off with the flour. You should be left with a pale fluffy batter. Wash your blueberries and then reserve a few for decorating if you are going to ice the cake. Toss the wet blueberries in a tablespoon of flour - this will give them a bit of ‘grip’ to the batter so they won’t sink to the bottom of the loaf tin.
It’s been a long and busy summer and to be totally honest, I haven’t been in the kitchen much at all. Works been manic, the temperature’s been to hot to stay indoors, and I’ve finally - after 32 years of trying - started doing a bit of exercise so I’ve had more on my plate than usual. That said, as summer starts to draw to a close (still hoping for an Indian summer over here!) but it’s technically the beginning of Autumn tomorrow so I’m getting back into cooking.
At this time of year there’s an abundance of blueberries in the supermarket (I picked up a 550g punnet in M&S for just £3) and when I saw them I knew exactly what I wanted to make - Lemon and blueberry cake! Anything with lemon is a winner for me and you can tailor the amount of juice you add to suit you tastes, I’d probably suggest just 30ml if you want a more subtle lemon flavour. I had some left over vanilla buttercream icing in the fridge but I think this cake would be just as lovely without any icing or perhaps served with a dollop of blueberry compote.
This is a really easy recipe that has a texture similar a Madeira cake but a bit lighter - YUM! It only takes about 10 minutes to get it all mixed up and into the oven but annoyingly it takes just over an hour to bake and about the same to cool so some patience is needed for sure.
Firstly pre-heat your oven to 160fan/180 and grease and line a loaf tin with some baking paper to make removing it from the tin nice and easy. I don’t fully trust non stick pans still.
In a medium bowl sift in the flour, salt and baking powder and give it a nice good mix, then with a stand mixer if you have one or using a hand whisk and a nice large bowl, whisk together the soft butter and sugar until you have a nice light mixture that’s pale in colour and smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, eggs, lemon juice and lemon rind and whisk on a medium speed until it’s all combined. Don’t worry if splits, it' will all become good in the end.
Then on a low speed, still using the whisk attachment , because - why not? we don’t need more washing up - add in the flour and milk alternating a few tablespoons of four with a slug of the milk finishing off with the flour. You should be left with a pale fluffy batter.
Wash your blueberries and then reserve a few for decorating if you are going to ice the cake. Toss the wet blueberries in a tablespoon of flour - this will give them a bit of ‘grip’ to the batter so they won’t sink to the bottom of the loaf tin.
Once coated, gently mix the blueberries into the batter and quickly put into your prepared 1lb loaf tin and place in the centre of the oven for an hour.
After an hour insert a toothpick into the centre of the cake - if it doesn’t come up clean, pop it back in the oven for up to 10 minutes and test it again. Leave the baked cake to cool in the tin for half an hour before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Top top, if you don’t ice this cake I think you can get away with eating it for breakfast without anyone being too judgmental. If you are feeling a bit fancy, then top with some traditional buttercream and fresh blueberries.
INGREDIENTS
220g plain flour + a handful for dusting
1tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
200g granulated sugar
110g butter - nice and soft but certainly not melted
2 free range eggs
1tsp good vanilla
1-2 lemons - peeled rind of 1 lemon and approx 50ml juice
3tbs whole milk
125g blueberries (I used fresh but frozen will work too and will save you some money)
And that’s it. Simples!